I've been using the Dreem headband for a year and a half and there are enough factual errors about it in this piece to make me distrust the rest of it.
Firstly, it doesn't require leaving your smartphone on all night as she writes. Once started, it's autonomous (it even reportedly shuts down its onboard WiFi/BT, probably for power saving reasons but also to alleviate any fears about having an RF emitter so close to your head for 8 hours)
Secondly, getting an accurate hypnogram (detailed sleep phases) on a consumer EEG device is a huge deal in itself (she doesn't seem to understand the point), but this one goes even further by promising to actively enhance slow wave/deep sleep through precisely timed audio stimulations (white noise pulses). The research in this area is apparently the starting point of the company.
Thirdly, the app does include the kind of CBT program she praises at the end of the article. I find the combination of this with a device that provides an accurate sleep log to be a potentially more efficient combination than CBT alone.
One area where I do have reservations with this class of devices is privacy : not only do you have your exact sleep/wake times + hundreds of MBs of your EEG data uploaded to their servers every morning, the latest version apparently has a built-in microphone !
It's reserved for future use (an obvious application is snoring / sleep apnea detection) and reportedly not activated yet, but of course it's closed source firmware and you have to take their word for it, and even if you trust their intentions (I do, and there's always GDPR), you also have to trust their security as well.
Disclaimer : I have no stake or direct interest in Dreem, but I'm very familiar with their product and even interviewed with them at one point.
I use sleep for android which has my sleep/wake times, heart rate, and I use the mic to record sleep talking. Doesn't really bother my privacy. If they want my insane ramblings from when I'm asleep that's fine with me. I sleep talk a lot and none of it makes any sense but it's good for a laugh. One of my favorites was talking about "the most beautiful sweater" for about 30 seconds
Firstly, it doesn't require leaving your smartphone on all night as she writes. Once started, it's autonomous (it even reportedly shuts down its onboard WiFi/BT, probably for power saving reasons but also to alleviate any fears about having an RF emitter so close to your head for 8 hours)
Secondly, getting an accurate hypnogram (detailed sleep phases) on a consumer EEG device is a huge deal in itself (she doesn't seem to understand the point), but this one goes even further by promising to actively enhance slow wave/deep sleep through precisely timed audio stimulations (white noise pulses). The research in this area is apparently the starting point of the company.
Thirdly, the app does include the kind of CBT program she praises at the end of the article. I find the combination of this with a device that provides an accurate sleep log to be a potentially more efficient combination than CBT alone.
One area where I do have reservations with this class of devices is privacy : not only do you have your exact sleep/wake times + hundreds of MBs of your EEG data uploaded to their servers every morning, the latest version apparently has a built-in microphone !
It's reserved for future use (an obvious application is snoring / sleep apnea detection) and reportedly not activated yet, but of course it's closed source firmware and you have to take their word for it, and even if you trust their intentions (I do, and there's always GDPR), you also have to trust their security as well.
Disclaimer : I have no stake or direct interest in Dreem, but I'm very familiar with their product and even interviewed with them at one point.